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surfing and wave sailing

Olaf Mitchell · · Paia, Maui, Hi, · Joined Mar 2007 · Points: 4,190
Olaf Mitchell · · Paia, Maui, Hi, · Joined Mar 2007 · Points: 4,190

Yesterday I went to the launch fully intending to wave sail.
The swell was from the North West and the sets were producing waves in the well over 20 foot faces and they were closing out for over a quarter mile.
The condition required the sailor to be very much on his game and constantly looking over his shoulder.
If taking a wave be sure to kick out in time to make it over the wave behind the one he is riding.
This technique is not foreign to me and can be quite rewarding in that there is the possibility/probability of getting a dynamic wave ride.
As soon as I got there a series of rain squalls passed through and shut the wind off for a while. Any one out on the ocean was left slogging without any power in his sail limiting his ability to maneuver out of harm’s way.
The rain squalls produced brilliant rainbows.
I waited for the squalls to pass and went to my truck to get my gear. When I was at my truck this little voice said to me, “You don’t have to do this!”
I left my gear in the truck and walked back to the launch and hung out and watched several of my friends craftily negotiate these serious conditions.
I was not alone in my decision not to venture out onto the ocean in that quite a few of our regular gang dropped by and didn’t choose to go out on the ocean either.
Today is a new day and the buoys report the swell is dropping some and the wind forecast is better. Game On !

rainbows after the squalls

The gang at the beach

Olaf Mitchell · · Paia, Maui, Hi, · Joined Mar 2007 · Points: 4,190
Olaf Mitchell · · Paia, Maui, Hi, · Joined Mar 2007 · Points: 4,190

It's been a strange week for surf and wave sailing! A small group of us wave sailed yesterday. We had fun. The wind was light and the waves were inconsistent. It would probably be a day that people would talk about for a long time in most any other arena. A new swell has arrived here on the north shore ad advisory flags are out. We have light Kona winds so there is a possibility of an epic sesh this afternoon. I have my chores done and I am off to the beach. I'm going searching!

BTW: I shot this image of a couple of local fishermen at Kuau two days ago. I keep checking it out so I thought I would share it with you. Notice the size of the wave behind them. That's Nori's.

local fishermen at Kuau Photo: Olaf Mitchell

Olaf Mitchell · · Paia, Maui, Hi, · Joined Mar 2007 · Points: 4,190

The swell that came in yesterday had a lot of west in it. I looked at Hookipa and it was too big for me to surf comfortably. Nori’s was the same, so I moved on down the beach to Kanaha.

At Kanaha I found near prefect waves with some of my favorite people in the lineup. We surfed for two solid hours of glassy head, to head and a half, high waves. I had one of those sesh's that I was in a perfect rotation with the sets. I would get a nice left hander in to the channel and by the time I paddled back to the peak another one would present its self. I got so many waves that I started feeling a bit guilty. I asked my buddy Peter, "Do you think I'm being a wave hog?" He said "Absolutely not Olaf, you’re just in the groove." That made me feel not so guilty.

That perfection ended when this guy started an argument with Rob Funk in the lineup. That negative energy just ruined my groove. I got cold and the water got choppy with a light onshore breeze. A bunch more people paddled out and it got crowded. I didn’t feel like competing for waves that weren’t as clean as we had earlier in the sesh. So I went in.

I would like to give a big atta-boy to three Brazilians (two guys and a woman) that hiked the down the steep trail at Peahi with their surf boards and traditionally paddled out from the rocks at the base of the cliff and surfed “Jaws” yesterday. I say RIGHT ON!!
I found these images that Jimmy Hepp shot of them ripping!

Left to right Yuri,Andrea Moller,and Marcia Freier Brazilian traditional big wave surfers.

Marcia Freier paddled in to ths wave yesterday at "Jaws"

Andrea Moller paddled into this wave at "Jaws" yesterday!

Olaf Mitchell · · Paia, Maui, Hi, · Joined Mar 2007 · Points: 4,190
PTZ · · Chicago/Colorado · Joined Jul 2010 · Points: 490

Are cutbacks on a snowboard powder day comparable the surf turns you cut? Is it apples to oranges?

Olaf Mitchell · · Paia, Maui, Hi, · Joined Mar 2007 · Points: 4,190
PTZ wrote: Are cutbacks on a snowboard powder day comparable the surf turns you cut? Is it apples to oranges?
That's a good question PTZ.
I'm going to hold my opinion for a while in hopes that we get some input from a few of the other surfer/snow boarders that frequent this thread.
How about some input gang?
Heyun · · Charleston S.C. · Joined Dec 2009 · Points: 455

Though I have never snowboarded in my life, I would say the big difference would be the fact that snow is stationary and the wave is moving. I would think the feeling of the "slash" would be the same. Surfers are cutting back into the breaking part of the wave and can get clipped, and/or simply left behind if they don't straighten out in a hurry and get going again.
If a snowboarder was cutting back into an avalanche or towards a cliff, it might be just about the same.

Oh, yea, paddling into Jaws... paddling back IN amongst the rolling boulders seems to be the hard part. I remember Johnny V and his glasser Everret (?) trying to paddle in at Jaws. I thought then, how the f*c& do you get back in... time it wrong and you'll get crushed, literally!

older pic, bran new board with a weird helicopter fin which I did not like and took out after 2 sessions... no I didn't pull this back around but managed to "throw buckets" for the cam.

did someone yell "fire"

Olaf Mitchell · · Paia, Maui, Hi, · Joined Mar 2007 · Points: 4,190
abc-of-snowboarding.com/sno…

Making a cutback is reversing the direction that you are surfing in one smooth fluid move. (That's the idea anyway.)
Cut back
A maneuver when a surfer is on the shoulder of the wave and turns back towards the breaking part of the wave.
CUTBACK
A turn where you reverse your direction completely, right to left or left to right.

Cutback
A 180 degree maneuver that's done setting a rail and turning back toward the curl or breaking part of a wave.
• Cut-Back - A 180 degree turn that's done on either of the two edges of the surfboard in order for the surfer to be positioned towards the breaking part of a wave.

I looked in to it for you and there is no word or phrase in snow board lingo that I find.

So it's apples to oranges.

I got so worked this afternoon! Double over head sets with about a 7 knt. head wind. Clean but delivering a punch!

Dude, Cut backs are for when ya need ta slow down! I think we need cut backs in every discipline! Rider in this image: Olaf Mitchell Photo taken by: Clay Thomas
PTZ · · Chicago/Colorado · Joined Jul 2010 · Points: 490

Then the flowing movement and fluffy turns. Is there the same type of feelings in deep pow as on a wave?
I always wondered if there was a likeness between the two.

Olaf Mitchell · · Paia, Maui, Hi, · Joined Mar 2007 · Points: 4,190
PTZ wrote:Then the flowing movement and fluffy turns. Is there the same type of feelings in deep pow as on a wave? I always wondered if there was a likeness between the two.
HiPTZ not knowing how much actual powder boarding experience you have makes it very difficult to address this issue. I started snowboarding before snowboards were allowed on any lifts in Colorado. Before that I was a regular at “Mary Jane”. Bump skiing was my passion.
I have been surfing for at least thirty five years, The past fifteen I have pursued the sport passionately living most of that time in places that I can surf and wave sail every day, every swell.
You are asking me to compare the feelings that I get from a powder run to a wave ride.
Well dude both of them can be completely euphoric and life transforming.
I suggest that you do some research like rent the movie “Step In To Liquid”, “Endless Summer”, and Big Wednesday to name a few. Each of those films do a fair job of protecting the stoke.
Surfing is a lifelong pursuit.
I don’t know where you snowboard but I have had many snowboard runs that took nearly an hour to complete and a long wave ride might be no more than a minute long, if that.
Realistically the one thing that snowboarding and surfing have in common is that they are board sports.
IMHO: Linking turns on a skateboard is closer to surfing than snowboarding is. And linking turns on a skate board is closer to snowboarding than surfing is.
I have actually thought about how to compare these two different things in a way that I could you could rationalize my response.
It’s like comparing a very steep and run out 5.12 friction pitch in the Platte like say “Mister Mantle”. To a 5.12 over hanging off width that’s 1500’ up like the one on “Air Voyage” in the Black Canyon. They’re both rock climbs, they are both very committing, and they are both rated 5.12.

On an another note, I went out looking for waves yesterday and BOY did I find them!
My first stop was Kuau and the small parking area was deserted except for Michi Schwinger’s van.
As I approached the beach I could see that I wasn’t going out at Kuau. It was easily triple over head and larger in the sets. There was a moderate Kona wind and the waves had no regular pattern. It was peaking up erratically and there was no way that I could see to line up.
At first I couldn’t see anyone out there and then I saw Michi. He was hidden from the shore most of the time by the waves in front of him.
He was trying to punch through the white water on the inside at Nori’s and having a difficult time of it.
I went to my truck and got my binoculars and my camera. By the time I got back He was about half way through the impact zone and he seemed to be making some progress. I watched as he made it over and through some sketchy and very technical territory on his SUP board.
At Kuau you’re at beach level and there is no elevated area to watch from. I thought that I would try to take a few photos any way. Also my camera doesn’t have a very powerful telephoto lens. I was pleasantly surprised when I down loaded my camera that I actually got a few ok shots of Michi surfing those very demanding conditions.

After that I moved on to Kanaha where the Kona’s were even stronger but the waves were a bit smaller.
Several of my friends showed up about the same time and we all decided to paddle out and see if we could get a wave or two.
The first wave I got was a Makker! I paddled for it and so did my friend Peter. I was sitting to his left so I went left and he went right. I paddled for it as the wind was blowing straight up the face and tried to push me back but I made it and popped up into a low stance to cut the wind drag a bit while I pulled hard on my starboard rail with my right hand to trim the board on the steep hollow face. (I found out that the waves were smaller at Kanaha but they were still a very respectable size!) Well any way as soon as I made the drop and went into my top turn the wave closed out and I got creamed. The last thing that I saw was this guy trying to duck dive the wave that I was on. I knew that I was going to be real close when I landed. When I came up he wasn’t very far from me and I asked if he was ok and he said there was no problem.
After that Peter thanked me for going left because the right held up well and he had a great ride.
With strong off shore wind it can be hard to get into waves but they are very clean when you do. One thing that I find is that you don’t want to be too close to the top of the wave when you make your top turn for fear of getting blown off the wave. This happened on one of my better waves yesterday.
All in all I think that only got a hand full of good waves and paddled for a bunch that I got pushed off of right as I was dropping in.

Big waves at Kuau yesterday

Michi Schweiger dropping in on a big right hander. The waves in front of him make the one he's on look small.

Michi on a left.

Michi Schwiger on the beach after his solo sesh at Kuau yesterday
Olaf Mitchell · · Paia, Maui, Hi, · Joined Mar 2007 · Points: 4,190

With the exception of the first two all these images were shot at Hookipa over the past few months by Jimmy Hepp one of our local surf photographers. Enjoy!!!

This is so elegant, IMHO Photo:chris-burkard
My friend Michelle ripping!
Surfer girl
in the soup
Morgan
BRB
Blue water Babe
joy
cut back cuttie
--- Invalid image id: 107008854 ---
Ripping Betty
surfer girl ripping!
slash!
sick hit!
Moana Wietecha

Page Alms

Paddle babe 2

JpQ

just one more hit!

No where to go!

Girls paddleing!

nice bottom turn!

trundlebum · · Las Vegas NV · Joined Aug 2007 · Points: 85

Wow such a cool thread !

"That perfection ended when this guy started an argument with Rob Funk..."

The guy must'a been a real tight wad to get pissy with someone like Rob.
I remember him as being a super easy going, Aloha kind'a guy.

Olaf those pic's of Jaw's...whew
(looks like they were going left a lot that day?)
Gott'a be a very particular swell to get make able lefts, Yes?

~~~~~~~~~

The shot of Kai Lenny and Marcillo at Hookipa is so primo !
Every once in a while flattening of depth of field in telephoto shots is such an enhancement.

~~~~~~~~~

Olaf sweet shot of you hitting it in the 'pow'

Re: PTZ's question:
"Are cutbacks on a snowboard powder day comparable the surf turns you cut? Is it apples to oranges?"

In a nutshell, what Hayne says:
"I would say the big difference would be the fact that snow is stationary and the wave is moving."

As Olaf pointed out, there is no term 'cutback' in snowboarding. So let's talk terms a little. PTZ are you aware of the surf term 'off the lip'? A cut back can be done on virtually any wave and perhaps the slower the wave the easier it is to make a 'full' cut back and then bang a turn off the oncoming white water of the wave as you redirect back in the direction of travel of the wave itself.
Cut Backs were first a 'wow' in the early days of long boarding when maneuverability was marginal. In the old (long) long (glorified waikiki paddle boards) days... it was easy for the rider to out race the breaking of the wave. In that the rider would wind up out on the shoulder and further out of 'the pit'. So riders began to do cut backs to essential slow their progress down line while at the same time carving a nice turn.
An off the lip on the other hand is a lot different. You can not really do an off the lip on a slow, mushy wave. There just is no real lip to hit. But once a wave starts to get steeper and actually pitch out a lip then the maneuver takes on life.
PTZ I think your question might better be:
"Is there a snowboard maneuver that compares with a hard off the lip in surfing"?
Again, not really, simply because the snow slope is not moving/dynamic.
I am not a very experienced snowboarder but I would say there is nothing in snowboarding that quite compares to having forward speed and hitting something coming at you that has speed all it's own. Even the best wave tanks don't quite do it. Wave tanks create only two of the four main motions of a breaking ocean wave.

When I snowboard I love finding cornices (cornae? LOL) to hit either front or backside. I like carving up under them and rail/lip sliding on them. But they are not surfing, the cornices are stationary.

Moving waves take a lot more experience and timing to hit really craftily. That's because not only is th4e medium moving but it is never quite the same twice around. It takes experience to read waves and predict how they will behave.

As beginner/intermediate snowboarder I would drive my first riding partner nuts. All he wanted to do was blaze the fall line on every run. As soon as I had learned some board control what I liked was to cross a slope doing 'speed pumps' and unleash that on a cornice or some other big move. I like trying to pump up some speed and see if I can pull off an uphill, 360 carve. That is very hard on a stationary slope. Not so tough on a meaty, moving wave.

Interestingly, in wave surfing the size is not the 'be all' for most surfers. Like any attraction, it's not just size but quality of shape (if yah follow me:) I huge sloppy, mushy wave is not nearly as fun as a head high snapper breaking cleanly 'top to bottom' meaning it's a hollow wave that is really throwing a lip and maybe better, creating a barrel. Another consideration being, how 'down the line' is the wave? Is it a huge, pitching, A-frame peak with no wall or even shoulder? Just a big drop and kick out? Or... It could be a slow, mushy take off into a easy to make looking wave that actually starts to wrap the reef and line up like a rifle barrel on the inside.

One of the most fun, explosive maneuvers I ever made on a surf board was on an only head and half high wave. I was surfing at a place called McGregor's point. It's a long right hand point that takes a south or straight westerly swell. Either of these swell directions typically bring nice, clean orderly sets with distinct lull intervals.
It was a beautiful Maui day. I had the break to just me and my partner. Our dogs held down shore watch. The wave is an easy take off and is not all that fast down the line from the peak. But once the wave gets about half way to shore it starts to really wall/line up and it just gets faster ad faster until it finally 'closes out' inside (stops peeling and all comes over or breaks all the way down the line at the same time making it unmakeable from that point)
Close outs are boon and bane to surfers depending on the conditions of the waves and how close to shore and what the shoreline is. Close outs over shallow coral are not so friendly. Close outs over sandy shore pound can be an udder blast.

K so McGregors is a right, I am goofy stance so it is backside for me (front side/backside is not so well defined in snowboarding if the snow rider is a proficient 'switch' rider)
I caught this one wave and got a great ride. on the inside the very predictable close out came and I was in tune with the timing of the wave. I saved some time with a a straight drop and hard backside bottom turn straight back up into the lip of this small but snappy, pitching, close out. My timing was such I hit it right under the lip as it was pitching. Not to early to where I carved on the face. Not to late to where I might blow the fins loose and lose contact resulting in more of a lip slide.
The wave literally slap me back and down. One second hard on my heels, the next throwing a shoulder and bearing down hard on the inside rail, to getting launched forward and slightly down. I seemed to just free fall into suds. I came down with the lip and the water was so turbulent that for a few seconds I could not see anything but white sudzy water all around me. I had no sense of motion be it forward or otherwise. There was not secure feeling of contact between my board and the water and the board was all over the place rail 2 rail. I had been walking a fair amount of slackline at that time and so I managed to stick it out. The board and I blew out of the white water. I could see I still had room before the shore line and I certainly had plenty of speed so I smashed a front side cut back off the close out, white water before kicking out/through.

That simply would'nt go down like that snowboarding unless you were willing to try something bold like:
Maybe riding fast down and across slope into an oncoming avalanche of 8' of snow mass moving down and across the slope towards you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Then the flowing movement and fluffy turns. Is there the same type of feelings in deep pow as on a wave?"

My response is:

It's what we all love and are attracted to in any of the 'Gravity Sports'.
It's all about the weighting and unweighting.

I think it's human nature to take great joy in being dynamic and graceful using a strong energy force with techniques that make it a dance not a struggle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Damn gott'a go...
Work so gets in the way of things sometimes.

Olaf Mitchell · · Paia, Maui, Hi, · Joined Mar 2007 · Points: 4,190

Thanks to trundlebum, for another of your insightful and enlightening posts! YOU "DA MAN" my "COZEN"! I really enjoyed the detailed stories. Your descriptive powers are to be commended. I especially like the McGregors story. Also you made some very good comparisons on the snowboard /surf issue. I am glad that you brought up the "Off The Lip" point.BTW trundlebum: I am still thinking about a "Red Rock" climbing trip this winter/spring.

Yesterdays sesh was one of those glassy head to head and a half Lower Kanaha winter afternoons.
It started out with Debbie Brown, me and a hand full of regulars each taking turns and getting all the waves we wanted.
It was a rising swell, so it got bigger as it got later. We were soon joined by more friends. I surfed till I got cold and too tired to paddle hard.
We were later invaded by a contingent of folks from some where else that obviously play by a different set of priority rules than we do on Maui. In the end my friend Tod and several other locals were getting pissed at this blatant disrespect for the rules of engagement.Tod is a large and very powerful man and he started charging hard down the line almost daring one of them to drop in on him again! I really couldn't blame him since he was taking off with us at the peak and had right of way.My last five or six waves I had some one drop in on me every time. I was afraid we were going to have an international incident, so I paddled in.

I thought that I would share this little story that Dale Cook posted on facebook to day:
"I was surfing some pretty big waves way off shore all by myself when Owen Wilson (actor) and two friends came and joined me. He paddled over and started to talk to me, just his voice started to crack me up.. He's a funny dude. Although his friends have no wave edicate, they kept dropping-in on me. So I tried to run one of them over and they got the hint."

Jasonn · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Dec 2009 · Points: 170

Im diggin the surfer chick photos! That guy has a cool job. Speaking of surf photography, Liquid and Megapixles looks like a great film. Cali was sick, but a little blown out. There was one okay day, but since I got in some sick tubes here on the east coast before I left, Cali didn't seem all that great. Ill put up some photos soon.

Olaf Mitchell · · Paia, Maui, Hi, · Joined Mar 2007 · Points: 4,190

All I can say is, that, I've was blessed with some great waves this week!

Jasonn · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Dec 2009 · Points: 170

Nice, looks like we will get some here on the east coast before I head back to school to.

Olaf Mitchell · · Paia, Maui, Hi, · Joined Mar 2007 · Points: 4,190

The day after that last great sesh at Kanaha the swell dropped some and the Kona wind kicked up a notch or three. It’s strange but I really don’t go wave sailing on port tack around here. I just don’t get to practice port tack wave sailing and when it occurs it usually goes off in a big way. The big Kona days I become a spectator and what a show it is! In years past I have seen some of the most amazing wave rides that I have ever seen at Hookipa and Lanes.

Several years back I watched Laird Hamilton prove to me that he is the best surfer that I have ever seen when dropped into easily quadruple over head with a 30mph head wind on a stand up paddle board. He not only powered that big board the wind pushing him back but he dropped nearly vertical down the wave and didn’t go down the line but he cut back left as soon as he got to the bottom and hit the peak and then he cut back and continued going down the line. That’s the kind of maneuver that only a master of sport could pull off. Here’s a link to some video that my friend JP shot that day. He didn’t get the wave that I told you about but if you watch it I think that you will get the picture. broadbandsports.com/node/19118 Also in that sesh I saw Kevin Pritchard prove that he was the undenighable King of Lanes at least that day as he just out sailed every major pro on the island. This was the contest of contests and it was free to watch, all you needed was a parking spot.

Well Wednesday wasn’t that big but it was well represented by the likes of Kai Lenny, Jason Polakaw, Robbie Nash, Michi Schweiger, Pascal Brannimann, Robbie Swift , Kai Katchadourian, Francisco Goya and a host of other major players in the world of professional windsurfing. There was a host of great surfers ripping it up at the point at Hookipa. I was parked too far away from the surfing action to identify any of the guys that were paddling in but I did see some dynamic wave rides over at the point. I did see my friend Buzzy Kerbox as he was getting out of the water as I drove by. I imagine most of the pro caliber surf gang spent some time in the lineup as well.
There were a lot of photographers on hand and I saw some great stuff on the internet the next day. I shot a few with my very unprofessional camera and I think I’ll post up a few that I took although they aren’t that good, they are my own shots.

The next two days I had delightful glassy over head to over head and a half plus evening sessions. The first of those I surfed with two of my good friends and yesterday was good as well but as the sash went on I was joined by at least fifteen people on SUPs and that got fairly hectic. Both days I got some great rides on good waves

Pascal

Kai and Robbie linking bottom turns

Kai, Michi,and Pascal

JP off the lip W/ Kai walking on water

Robbie Nash

The surfers were killing it as well!

Olaf Mitchell · · Paia, Maui, Hi, · Joined Mar 2007 · Points: 4,190

The National Weather Service has issued a High Surf Advisory for Maui County due to a large west-northwest swell building throughout the day today. The buoys continue to rise and are already near 15 foot 19 seconds early this morning. Although island shadowing will still be a factor, we should see plenty surf today due to the size and power of this swell. Dangerous conditions are possible so use your head before paddling out. North and northwest facing shores should see surf in the 10-15++ foot range at many breaks and the potential for much larger sets at the best exposed locations is high. Upper West shores will be heavily blocked by Moloka`i but some breaks could see large surf rolling through around 5-8+ foot. Some south shore breaks could see well overhead surf around 5-8+ foot at the more westerly exposed breaks while other breaks stay flat. Windswell along our east facing shores will stay absent at only 0-3 foot. The potentially massive storm predicted below is rapidly building east of Japan and is still expected to produce an exceptionally large swell… keep those fingers crossed!

Jaws should be "EPIC" this week!

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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